Students Walked Out of Classes To Protest Ontario Student Assistance Program Changes

a year ago

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Wednesday was marked by a massive Ontario post-secondary student walkout in protest of the Ford government’s changes to Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP). Students of at least 17 different campuses across the Otario province participated in the walkout. The Typical Student team learned more about students' demands.

Who Organized the Student Walkout?

The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) stepped forth as the organiztion behind the student walkout. These were main students' demands:

more student grants from the province government;

increase funding for public education;

eliminate tuition fees for all students.

Similar walkout was organized at Ryerson University, Toronto, where hundreds of students protested and signed a petition with a demand to reverse the changes to OSAP announced by the province government about two months ago.

As for the Ontario province, student walkouts were organized at a number of other educational institutions such as the University of Toronto, York University, Carleton University, Trent University, Seneca College and George Brown College.

OSAP Changes

January 17, the government announced the changes to the previous Liberal government’s OSAP plan attempting to cover on the province’s multi-billion-dollar deficit. As told by the GlobalNews, one of the OSAP changes included the elimination of free tuition for low-income students, a program the auditor-general warned would potentially cost the province $2 billion annually by 2020-21.

Under the new plan, low-income students are to receive a portion of money that will be loans.